It’s been a hectic couple of weeks at work. A lot of late hours have resulted in me falling behind on my postings, as well as missing Hi-C’s birthday party. That’s how horrible the end of this busy season has been. That being said, I owe my last Mets update of the 2008 season as well as 2 Giants updates, the first two of 2009. Before I can open the 2009 football season, I have to close books on the Mets. Don’t worry, this will be quick….
August 19, 2009, Mets vs. Braves
1) I’m really not having much luck with my commutes over the George recently. This is the second or third time in a row that the GWB is costing me valuable time.
2) C is on her way, taking the train. She’s the smart one of the two of us.
3) The packers are tailgating in the lot, I’m tailgating some jackass who doesn’t know how to drive.
4) Okay, try directing your girlfriend and your best college buddy to meet each other outside Citi Field while you’re 10 miles away and see how well you do. Thank God for cell phones.
5) Wow, after getting through the traffic on the bridge, it literally took me five minutes to get from the GWB to the
6) C met everyone and already went inside without me.
7) Holy Lord it’s friggin hot in here. Are the Wilpon’s cutting back on A/C to save costs?
8) C apparently told Mike the dream story. FML.
9) Considering how bad this team is, Mike and I decided at least we can always heckle Larry and Braves fans.
10) Remember this: Parnell looked good in the first inning. 12 pitches. Nice.
11) Mike and I just realized that 3 years ago on this date was 1986 Night. Oh how far we’ve come in just 3 years.
12) That day, we also had our fantasy football draft before the game and our buddy Ryan stayed at my house, by himself and watched TV until we got home.
13) The pastries have been passed around. Mmmmmm….jelly donut!
14) C doesn’t want me to get the Hawaiian Mets shirt for her birthday. Damn, looks like I have to return one present!
15) I can’t even heckle the Braves fan in front of us. He’s too funny.
16) We just split Box Frites again. Utterly phenomenal. This is the greatest thing to happen to Mets baseball since Mike Piazza.
17) I’ve finally had the spare ribs from Blue Smoke and oh my God. Unbelievable how good these are.
18) “That’s the most barbaric thing I’ve ever seen”~C referring to me eating the ribs
19) “Honey we’ve been barbaric for millions of years, so I mean if you were a cave woman, what would you have done?”~Me. “I would have eaten the plants.”~C
(Granted, she’s not a vegetarian. On our first date, she said, “I could care less what happens to the animal, I just don’t like steaks or any red meat, but I could eat chicken every day. There are a couple reasons for this, one is personal preference and the other is that book “Skinny Bitch,” which I’ve never read, but understand that I would probably only succeed in making me angry at the authors, denying all their claims resulting in me going on a three week nothing but red beef bender diet.)
20) Man, talk about station to station baseball by the Braves with McCann and LaRoche as the lead baserunners.
21) Braves just ripped off four straight hits and only got one run. I think they figured Parnell out.
22) What hustle by Infante to beat out Hernandez’s throw from short. 3-0.
23) Question for you…with runners on first and third and two outs, the batter grounds to shortstop, the second baseman’s responsibility is
a) Cover second for the throw from short to end the inning
b) Backup first base for the long throw from short
c) Start jogging towards the dugout.
d) It’s Luis Castillo, who knows?
If you answered a) or d) you are correct. If you answered b) you’re a moron. If you answered c) your name must be Luis Castillo. 4-0
24) This is getting out of hand quickly.
25) You know, since we’re fielding a Little League team, why can’t we play by Little League rules?
26) What’s the mercy rule?
27) Thank God C is already a Mets fan and I’m not attempting to make her one because this team would be giving me nothing to work with.
28) With McCann at the plate and the bases loaded, Parnell launches a wild pitch. Someone said he doesn’t want to give up a grand slam.
29) Okay, 3-run homer.
30) This team is driving me to drink. 8-0
31) I feel bad for Parnell. He should have been out of the inning at 3-0.
32) If Big Bruce were managing, after Castillo didn’t cover second, he would have put his backup catcher in at second, “In full gear.”~Mike. Where’s Robinson Cancel when you need him?
33) We just double switched in the 4th inning down 8 runs. A double switch which took Castillo out of the game, after he was the only one to drive in a run last inning.
34) 11-1
This concludes all the notes that I had on this game. I gave up. So did Mike and Bruce, as they left in the 5th. C and I lasted one more inning, but not before I won my bet with her that Jeff Francoeur comes up to “Chicken Fried” by Zac Brown Band. I was right and proceeded to rub it in her face. She didn’t take kindly to that and told me I was wrong and I didn’t win the bet, because I didn’t specify that it was only one at bat that he walks up to that song. Whatever. “HAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! HAHHHHHHHHH! HAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! BRIAMONTE!!!! WINS AGAIN!!!! HAHHHHHHHHH!!!! CHAMPION OF THE WORLD!!!!! HAHHHHHHH!!!! HAAAAH!!!!!! HAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
Besides that, the games have just become no longer fun. Do I enjoy everyone’s company on the pack? Yes, and I’ll miss them this off season, but this is not my team. This is not what I paid to see. Laura was not pleased with me when I left. I can understand it, I just couldn’t sit there and watch my team get their faces kicked in anymore. That’s two games in a row. No thanks. I NEVER leave a game early. That’s how bad this one got. I know I’ve always preached about never giving up on your team, but what if you’re team has given up on you? Then what?
I’m done with them. See you next year when you actually wanna put a team on the field that’s gonna compete and you’re not going to embarrass us fans with front office shenanigans. Shenanigans doesn’t even show up on spell check. Awesome.
Oh!! How could I forget the best part? After we left our seats, we headed down to the team store in the rotunda. We walked around for a little bit checking out all the merchandise, when I found what looked like a clearance rack as there were a bunch of jerseys of players no longer on the Mets. And let’s just say they aren’t missed either. Much to my dismay, it wasn’t a clearance rack. These, “game worn” jerseys were selling for $150 a pop with the names of Matt DeSalvo, Duaner Sanchez, Tobi Stoner and Rob Mackowiak on the back. They were actually in believe that someone would pay in the triple digits for these. At this point I called Mike and kept looking until I found the crown jewel: a “game worn” Heilman jersey going for a whopping $250. “That’s the most expensive log for my fireplace anyone could ever buy me.”~Mike. I wanted to take the jersey up to the counter, place it there and ask the cashier why. Just why did they think this even made sense.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. We tried to leave, but they won’t let you out the front door. We tried to go out the revolving door on the side, but it was locked and the other doors were roped off. “Are they trying to force us to buy something?”~C Frustrated, I moved the rope and pushed open the door, as C asked a worker how we were supposed to get out. He said, “You can’t go that….” I responded with, “Stop me.”
As we were walking to the car, C asked if I was mad because they were ripping off the fans trying to sell those jerseys for such a steep price. I said it wasn’t that they were ripping off the fans. If anyone wants to pay $250 for an Aaron Heilman jersey, that’s their choice. What the Giants are doing is extortion, because there is no other option given. Either you pay the ridiculous fee or you’re out. Seriously, where is the market for a $250 Aaron Heilman jersey? There isn’t one. Someone in the Mets organization hired someone dumb enough to make this determination. What that tells me is that this team is run by a bunch of incompetents and until that changes, things are not going to get better for this team.
Although my 7-pack, er 5-pack season is over, I will do a season recap at the end of the year. I will also be posting Alex’s blog that he put together at the last game of the season for the group shortly.
